As Randy Jackson would say, "We've got a hot one tonight!"

Your songs are very catchy, almost exotic. The tension that builds up in each piece keeps me interested. I was especially pleased with the inspiration theme because it made my emotions come alive. I could easily connect with that song in particular, although all of your samples were intriguing.

Well, good luck with future creations.

Quote:Original post by anothrguitarist
As Randy Jackson would say, "We've got a hot one tonight!"

Your songs are very catchy, almost exotic. The tension that builds up in each piece keeps me interested. I was especially pleased with the inspiration theme because it made my emotions come alive. I could easily connect with that song in particular, although all of your samples were intriguing.

Well, good luck with future creations.

Thank you very much. My goal is to get the listener to connect to my music, so it looks like I could be on the right track!

If you know of anyone who needs music for their projects, I'd appreciate it if you'd slip my name in. ;)

Have a good one!

Quote:Original post by Rain 7
Ummm...wow. (Have you heard of Autechre or Praful, by chance? ;) The vibe and clarity of your music reminds me quite a bit of them.

Absolutely lovely music. (Especially the programming.) Your production skills are really groovy!

Cheers and good luck

Ryan

No I haven't, but I will check them out. Thanks a lot!

I just got back to my studio and had a chance to listen to all of your tracks on my monitors and I really enjoyed them. I'm not too familiar with this genre of music from a listening or production standpoint, but I did make a few notes.

Inspiration theme - I like the way that the percussion sits in the mix, all the elements seem to have good separation, especially in the stereo field. The way that this builds and the ideas sort of layer on one another reminds me of Clint Mansell. One thing I did notice is that in the middle of the piece when the arrangement builds, the mix started to lose a little clarity. It didn't sound bad, but if some of the melodic ideas with similar timbre and range (piano/harp and bass/fretless bass) could have been separated a bit more, it might sound a bit clearer. With a little EQ and some slight panning, I think it may sound a bit more focused.

Eerie theme - I like the drone and the harmony in the intro, but the maj 7th sounds a bit muddy to me, I would probably transpose it up a 2nd or so, but thats really just a personal preference. You may want to roll off some of the highs in the glitch snare, it sounded a little harsh to me and seemed to be kind of a distract from the rest of the mix. I think the way that the guitar and piano sit in the mix works nicely, they both cut through very well.

Antagonist Theme - The plucked instrument (is it an oud?) sounds like it could use a bit more ambience, it sounds a bit upfront to me. The muted trumpet is a nice contrast here. I would suggest that when you're writing countermelodic or contrapuntal ideas like you have here with the oud (?) and the trumpet, you should try to avoid perfect intervals (octaves, 5ths, and to a lesser extent, 4ths) as much as possible. There's a few points when the similar rhythm and perfect intervals seem to make the lines "melt" together a bit. This is really nitpicky stuff, but it is good to keep in mind.

Sad Theme - I like this piece alot, especially the flute melody. From an orchestration standpoint, there are a few things that you could do to accentuate the material that you have. The mix overall seems to be lacking warmth or body, some simple sustained strings in the lower range or a wide pad would really help. Solo flute, especially playing mp in the middle or bottom of its register, doesn't cut through mixes very well. It's a great sound, particularly for something with this feel, but you have to be very careful about the rest of the orchestration to make sure that it doesn't get lost in the mix. Simplifying the counterpoint in the guitar and piano accompaniment or moving it further away from the flute register would help bring the flute melody out some.

I also heard a few "crunches" in the tracks, especially at about 2:58 in the "Inspiration" track and around 1:54 in the "Eerie" track. You may have some clipping on one of the busses or fx modules. Headphones are really good for checking for this kind of stuff.

I'd also try to play in as many lines as possible as opposed to programming (this is more important for "organic" sounds like strings and winds than synth or electronica stuff). I'm a pretty awful pianist, so sometimes with latency and keyswiching or articulation changes, this is more trouble than it is worth, but even when I am programming things straight into edit windows, I'll still almost always humanize or smear the timing and durations and slightly randomize the velocity, or sometimes even pitch just to avoid too much of a mechanical feel. For pieces like your "Sad" theme, slight tempo variations can also add a really nice human touch. I dont know what DAW you are using, but chances are you can set your sequence to receive sync from your MIDI controller and "conduct" a sequence by tapping a tempo out. It's amazing how much of a difference this can add. Also, don't be afraid to modulate tonal centers, sometimes this can be a very good dramatic device or it can help you to get the most out of your arrangements/orchestrations by being able to put instruments in there ideal registers.

Overall I was really impressed with your music it definitely has a very RPG, fantasy type of sound and I expect that you'll find some really good learning opportunities on this forum.

Quote:Original post by John Rodriguez
I just got back to my studio and had a chance to listen to all of your tracks on my monitors and I really enjoyed them. I'm not too familiar with this genre of music from a listening or production standpoint, but I did make a few notes.

Inspiration theme - I like the way that the percussion sits in the mix, all the elements seem to have good separation, especially in the stereo field. The way that this builds and the ideas sort of layer on one another reminds me of Clint Mansell. One thing I did notice is that in the middle of the piece when the arrangement builds, the mix started to lose a little clarity. It didn't sound bad, but if some of the melodic ideas with similar timbre and range (piano/harp and bass/fretless bass) could have been separated a bit more, it might sound a bit clearer. With a little EQ and some slight panning, I think it may sound a bit more focused.

Eerie theme - I like the drone and the harmony in the intro, but the maj 7th sounds a bit muddy to me, I would probably transpose it up a 2nd or so, but thats really just a personal preference. You may want to roll off some of the highs in the glitch snare, it sounded a little harsh to me and seemed to be kind of a distract from the rest of the mix. I think the way that the guitar and piano sit in the mix works nicely, they both cut through very well.

Antagonist Theme - The plucked instrument (is it an oud?) sounds like it could use a bit more ambience, it sounds a bit upfront to me. The muted trumpet is a nice contrast here. I would suggest that when you're writing countermelodic or contrapuntal ideas like you have here with the oud (?) and the trumpet, you should try to avoid perfect intervals (octaves, 5ths, and to a lesser extent, 4ths) as much as possible. There's a few points when the similar rhythm and perfect intervals seem to make the lines "melt" together a bit. This is really nitpicky stuff, but it is good to keep in mind.

Sad Theme - I like this piece alot, especially the flute melody. From an orchestration standpoint, there are a few things that you could do to accentuate the material that you have. The mix overall seems to be lacking warmth or body, some simple sustained strings in the lower range or a wide pad would really help. Solo flute, especially playing mp in the middle or bottom of its register, doesn't cut through mixes very well. It's a great sound, particularly for something with this feel, but you have to be very careful about the rest of the orchestration to make sure that it doesn't get lost in the mix. Simplifying the counterpoint in the guitar and piano accompaniment or moving it further away from the flute register would help bring the flute melody out some.

I also heard a few "crunches" in the tracks, especially at about 2:58 in the "Inspiration" track and around 1:54 in the "Eerie" track. You may have some clipping on one of the busses or fx modules. Headphones are really good for checking for this kind of stuff.

I'd also try to play in as many lines as possible as opposed to programming (this is more important for "organic" sounds like strings and winds than synth or electronica stuff). I'm a pretty awful pianist, so sometimes with latency and keyswiching or articulation changes, this is more trouble than it is worth, but even when I am programming things straight into edit windows, I'll still almost always humanize or smear the timing and durations and slightly randomize the velocity, or sometimes even pitch just to avoid too much of a mechanical feel. For pieces like your "Sad" theme, slight tempo variations can also add a really nice human touch. I dont know what DAW you are using, but chances are you can set your sequence to receive sync from your MIDI controller and "conduct" a sequence by tapping a tempo out. It's amazing how much of a difference this can add. Also, don't be afraid to modulate tonal centers, sometimes this can be a very good dramatic device or it can help you to get the most out of your arrangements/orchestrations by being able to put instruments in there ideal registers.

Overall I was really impressed with your music it definitely has a very RPG, fantasy type of sound and I expect that you'll find some really good learning opportunities on this forum.

Thank you SO much. This helps a lot and I can't wait to bring it into my writing. I've been especially curious about making the programming sound more organic, and what you said definitely helps.

Again, I appreciate you taking the time to give me so much advice!

Stephen